Amid USAID chaos, some humanitarian aid groups still aren’t getting paid for lifesaving programs

Scores of organizations are grappling with canceled US Agency for International Development contracts and little to no payment from the agency.

Edesia, a Rhode Island-based company that makes “Plumpy’Nut” — packets of specially fortified and highly caloric peanut butter paste that saves the lives of severely malnourished babies and children — recently laid off 10% of its staff and even briefly paused production altogether for more than two weeks. Its CEO says they are having serious cash flow problems. In Georgia, MANA Nutrition — a plant that produces similar “Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food,” or RUTF, packets of peanut butter — is leaning heavily on a line of credit from Bank of America to stay afloat for the time being, according to the company’s founder. Neither company has gotten paid by the US Agency for International Development in months — not since the last quarter of 2024. “We are irreparably breaking a good system for no particular reason,” said Mark Moore, MANA’s CEO and co-founder. “And the impact on children — it’s not at all dramatic to say that it’s going to cost, at the very least, tens of thousands of lives.” Edesia and MANA are among the scores of organizations grappling with canceled USAID contracts and little to no payment from the agency. Both Edesia and MANA had their USAID contracts canceled before they were reinstated; for MANA, the cancellation was rescinded after Elon Musk personally weighed in. USAID, spurred by a court ruling, has begun issuing payments to other organizations — but those payments have been sporadic and minimal.